Note 5 — THE BOOK OF NATIONS Geographical, Historical, Descriptive (continued 5)

Parthia had the rare distinction of being a country the prowess of whose warriors baffled the efforts of Rome for her subjection. The Parthian kingdom, southeast of the Caspian Sea, came into existence about 250 B. C., by revolt from the Seleucids, the monarchs of Syria, and became a powerful realm after the death of Alexander the Great. It included Parthia proper, Hyrcania, and afterwards (130 B. C.) Bactria, so that at last its dominions stretched from the Euphrates to the Indus, and from the river Oxus to the Indian Ocean. The Parthians adopted the Greek religion, manners, and customs, which had been introduced into that part of Asia by Alexander’s conquests.

The renowned cavalry of Parthia seem to have been all-powerful only on their own soil, for their invasions of the Roman province of Syria in 39 and 38 B.C. were utterly defeated, while the invasion of Parthia by the great Roman general and triumvir, Mark Antony, in 36, was repulsed with loss of a great part of his army. In 20 B. C. the Parthian king Phraates restored, chiefly as a friendly concession, the standards and prisoners taken from Crassus and Antonius, and this is the event commemorated by the Roman poets of the day as equivalent to a submission by Parthia. Under the Roman emperors the Parthians sometimes courted and were sometimes at war with Rome, and were partially conquered for a time under Trajan. The Parthian kings encouraged Christianity. In A. D. 226 a revolt of the Persians put an end to the Parthian kingdom, revived the religion of Zoroaster, stopped the eastward progress of Christianity in Asia, and began modern history in Persia.